How dairy farm cut calf scour with vaccination

A Lancashire dairy farmer has significantly reduced calf scours, mortality, and antibiotic use by implementing stricter hygiene and husbandry measures alongside vaccinating cows in late pregnancy against Cryptosporidium parvum.

The Cryptosporidium parvum (C. parvum) parasite was identified as being the cause of scour in David Bradley’s youngstock four years ago.

Fifth generation farmer David, who farms at Derby Hill Farm, Weeton, Preston, believes this pathogen may have entered his herd after purchasing second-hand calf hutches.

C.Parvum eggs can persist in bedding, soil, water, pasture, and on equipment, and even be transmitted via humans. Infected calves can shed up to one million oocysts per gram of faeces, with as few as 17 needed to cause clinical disease¹.

Signs of infection

The first signs of infection were a loss of appetite, a change in faeces and a drop in growth rates normally occurring in the first 10-14 days. Calves over 14 days didn’t seem to be affected.

“It was different from normal scours,” recalls Mr Bradley, who milks 250 crossbred cows in partnership with his brother, John.

“We had a history of great growth rates exceeding 1 kg/day live weight gain as normal and almost zero mortality, so the first signs that things were not right were a dip in growth rates to below 0.8 kg/day and in extreme cases the occasional loss of a calf, which is literally unheard of on our farm,” he says.

Mr Bradley and his herd manager, Stephen Hindle, worked closely with the team at Ribble Vets to identify the cause and develop ways to reduce the parasite’s impact on the farm.

Key changes implemented

The farm introduced stricter hygiene and disease control measures, including:

• Replacing a sand-based calving pen with a concrete floor to allow for a stringent wash-down procedure, including foaming and disinfecting after every calving.
• Introducing rubber matted calf pens for easier cleaning.
• Sterilising stomach tubes used for feeding colostrum at 90°C with Deosan D90 ™ cleaning solution.
• Operating an “all-in, all-out” system for individual calf hutches.
• Washing calf jackets.

Mr Bradley says removing the sand bedding made a difference. “When the sand was fresh, we wouldn’t see as many problems, but as soon as 10-15 cows had calved through the pen, the problem would flare up. We assumed the calving pen was a source,” he says.

At its worst, the farm had to treat every newborn calf with the antibiotic paromomycin from birth until seven days old.

“Not only was it a big cost, but it wasn’t solving the problem – just masking it. Also, with Red Tractor clamping down on routine antibiotic use, this wasn’t a viable long-term solution,” he adds.

Although improved biosecurity helped lower the number of cases, the parasite infection remained a persistent challenge.

Tiffany Horn from Ribble Vets explains that even with the best hygiene, C. parvum is difficult to eradicate due to its resilience against extreme temperatures and many disinfectants.

“Cleanliness and good colostrum management help provide the foundations for better disease control. But it’s a hard parasite to eradicate as it can survive for many years,” she says.

Vaccination

However, the launch of a vaccine in GB against calf cryptosporidiosis, late in 2024, presented the team with an opportunity to improve disease control significantly.

“By vaccinating cows in late pregnancy with the Bovilis Cryptium^™ vaccine, calves can gain disease protection from birth at the start of colostrum feeding – when they are most vulnerable.

Active immunisation of the cows raises antibodies in their colostrum against C. parvum, which will help to reduce clinical signs (i.e. diarrhoea) in the newborn calves when they are fed this fortified colostrum,” explains Tiffany.

Since starting to vaccinate cows in November 2024, the team at Derby Hill Farm has seen huge improvements. In fact, no calves have shown symptoms since increasing the colostrum and transition milk feeding from vaccinated dams.

The vaccine is administered to cows in the third trimester of pregnancy, with two doses given 4-5 weeks apart and completed at least three weeks before calving.

For subsequent pregnancies, a one-dose booster is needed in the third trimester.

This can be given alongside vaccination of pregnant dams with the Bovilis^® Rotavec^® Corona vaccine, which the farm also uses to protect calves against other important neonatal scour pathogens (rotavirus, coronavirus and E.coliF5 (K99) and F41).

Bovilis Cryptium works by raising the antibody levels in the dam’s colostrum.

This immunity is then passed on to their calves via colostrum (milk from the cow on day 1) and transition milk (milk produced from days 2-5 after calving), reducing clinical disease signs caused by the C. parvum infection,” adds Tiffany.

Colostrum feeding

At Derby Hill Farm, a great deal of attention is paid to colostrum feeding to ensure calves get the protection needed from their dam’s milk, with a robust milk feeding protocol in place.

Before vaccinating, calves would get colostrum for two days before being moved onto powdered milk.  However, since vaccinating, they now feed colostrum and transition milk for the first five days of life.

Mr Hindle explains: “As soon as calves are born, they are stomach tubed with 4 litres of colostrum and then another 3L six hours later.

“On day two, they then get 3L in the morning and 2L in the afternoon, and from day three until day five, this drops to 2L in the morning and 2L in the afternoon of transition milk from vaccinated cows before being moved onto powdered milk from day six.”

Mr Hindle says they initially fed colostrum and transition milk for only four days after starting vaccination, but some calves still showed signs of cryptosporidiosis infection.

However, vaccine manufacturer MSD Animal Health stresses that colostrum and transition milk from vaccinated dams should be fed for five days for maximum benefit.

“You can either feed entirely colostrum and transition milk from a vaccinated dam for five days or, if there’s a short supply of milk from vaccinated cows, supplement the usual feed.

“When supplementing, for calves to receive full protection, they need at least three litres of colostrum on day one, one litre on day two, and 0.5 litres of colostrum on days three to five,” explains Dr Kat Baxter-Smith, veterinary adviser from the company.

Mr Hindle says there’s a noticeable difference in calves receiving milk from vaccinated dams. “These calves are just different altogether.

“They are thriving. It’s also a boost to staff morale. It was hard when we were just losing one calf after another,” he adds.

Any excess colostrum or transition milk from vaccinated dams is frozen to ensure a steady supply should one dam not produce enough.

Although the vaccine is an added cost, they say it is far cheaper than using antibiotics and helps ensures calves remain in the herd and go on to hit their target calving age of two years old.

“We don’t want to be using antibiotics as a first-line treatment. We haven’t used any paromomycin since we started vaccinating three months ago, which says a lot,” says Mr Hindle.

All calves, whether dairy heifers or beef calves, are treated the same, with beef calves sold off the farm at three weeks old.

Calves are individually housed for the first two weeks before being housed in groups of five with similarly sized calves.

The proactive disease management at Derby Hill Farm demonstrates how a targeted vaccination programme, combined with strict biosecurity measures, can effectively tackle disease challenges like cryptosporidiosis, improving calf health and farm efficiency.

Farm Facts

• Milking 250 crossbred Montbéliarde, Norwegian Red, Holstein, Jersey, and Brown Swiss cows
• Calving all year round
• Low cull rate of 22% due to the hybrid vigour from crossbreeding
• Milking 3 x a day
• Cows yielding 10,400 litres, butterfat 4%, protein 3.3%
• All milk processed on-farm for sale via doorstep deliveries and through local shops
• Sexed semen used in cows

Reference:

1. The Moredun Foundation ‘Cryptosporidiosis in Cattle’ News Sheet Vol.7 No.1 2019.

Bovilis Cryptium^® contains Cryptosporidium parvum Gp40. POM-V.

Bovilis^® Rotavec^® Corona contains inactivated rotavirus, coronavirus and E. coli strain CN7985

serotype O101:K99:F41 POM-VPS.

Further information is available from the SPC, datasheet or package leaflets. MSD Animal Health UK Limited. Registered office Walton Manor, Walton, Milton Keynes MK7 7AJ, UK. Registered in England & Wales no. 946942. Advice should be sought from the medicine prescriber. 

Prescription decisions are for the person issuing the prescription alone.

Use Medicines Responsibly.

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